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Bill Shipp
State Democratic Party chief Kahn's blast arrived as an official letter. It charged that House Speaker Glenn Richardson was engaging in an improper relationship with a lobbyist - a corporate cutie from the gas company, as it turned out - while the gas company was getting Richardson's support for building a $300 million pipeline across the state. (You and I were going to get to pay for the mostly unregulated pipe. What a deal!) Kahn suggested that the Richardson-cutie-pipeline combination constituted a "conflict of interest." Pay attention to what happened. Kahn dispatched his complaint to the state Ethics Commission and the Joint Legislative Ethics Committee. Both groups appeared bewildered. They did not know what to do with the accusation. The state Ethics Commission has been barred from taking up allegations of conflicts of interest involving legislators and is limited mostly to looking into candidates' bookkeeping errors. The Joint Legislative Ethics Committee did not know precisely how to address the Kahn letter. Ethics is not a high-priority item in the Georgia Legislature. Besides, "The speaker is a friend," Sen. Eric Johnson, legislative ethics chairman, noted after the complaint was filed. His committee has met only once in its entire history, and Richardson has appointed half the members who will investigate him. Gov. Sonny Perdue began his march to the governor's office in 2002 with repeated promises to promote ethical conduct. He promised to give the Ethics Commission teeth and to make honesty in government a must for Perdue's New Georgia. Perdue installed his own ethics board members. He fired able Ethics Commission director Teddy Lee. He wanted a new start, he said. Lee was a tad too rigid, insiders said. Georgia's current Legislature may be reminiscent of the last Congress. Consider super-lobbyist Jack Abramoff and disgraced former Congressman Duke Cunningham. Their transgressions involved conflicts of interest. Come to think of it, nearly every truly significant ethics scandal in Washington has sprung from a conflict of interest (or sexual misconduct). Yet one seldom hears the dreaded "conflict of interest" phrase in Atlanta. We begin to see why. Perdue has flitted from one big private real estate deal to another, using special informa- tion fit only for a governor and his buddies to know, and with certainty that his ethics code is printed on toilet paper. He also figured, perhaps wrongly, that the state attorney general was napping. No wonder the governor blithely accepted a new tax law that especially benefited him. No wonder he looked so relaxed as he set new records for clichés and generalities in the kickoff speeches for his second term. However, the Richardson affair may quickly change the current get-bywith anything climate. It may cause us and, more importantly, some of our regulators to sit up and take notice. In an unconnected matter, Attorney General Thurbert Baker is suddenly wide awake and spoiling for a fight. He has fired off a seven-page letter to the University System Board of Regents questioning the mishandling of hefty UGA sums. The missive is highly critical of UGA President Mike Adams. Most of the cited incidents are at least three years old and were thoroughly aired shortly after they occurred. Why the AG is just now popping the regents for their behavior is unclear. With his successful landslide re-election behind him, a more activist Baker may have emerged. Some suggest that the regents' letter was just a limberingup process in preparation for going after bigger fish - like lobbyists literally running wild around the Capitol while the Legislature is supposed to be doing the people's business. Speaker Richardson has responded to Kahn's accusations in the thoughtful manner to which Georgians have become accustomed. He says that his enemies are trying to "poison" him and that he plans to make a list of his enemies as soon as he can identify all of them. And he pledges to get even. The Legislature's response to the Richardson ethics complaint ought to tell voters what our elected officials think of us. They seem to think we are stupid and gullible. They believe that they can preach about ethics and behave like scoundrels, and that we won't know the difference. The Glenn Richardson episode may reveal that our elected officials are wrong. We indeed recognize arrogant, indiscreet and improper behavior when we see it. P.S.: The ethics charge has not slowed down the autocratic speaker a bit. Last week, he summarily fired Rep. Mack Crawford, R-Concord, as the Appropriations Committee's subcommittee chairman on judicial agencies. Crawford's sin: failure to raise enough cash for Richardson's special campaign kitty. Richardson has ordered committee chairs to contribute up to $70,000 to his special fund - or else.-- You can reach Bill Shipp at P.O. Box 440755, Kennesaw, GA 30160, or e-mail: shipp1@bellsouth.net
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